Tuesday, May 8, 2007

Dead Babies

I was brought to tears by this article. The saddest thing about this story is that it is receiving very little publicity. I love the quote by Sgt Tracy McDonald where he says "This is no accident. ... It was entirely preventable." I have been trying to say this all along. These things are not accidents. The drunk driver, 19 year old Ronald Jayne made a clear cut decision to be a potential killer. Just because that potential became a reality doesn’t mean that this should be classified as an accident. An eye witness to the incident said that after Jayne caused the incident he got out, sat on the side of the road and said “this is going to mean a world of hurt for me.” He lit up a cigarette and waited for the police. Yes, poor Jayne is in a world of hurt. Sounds like he didn’t even care that he killed 5 people and injured 3 more. 4 of the dead were children. Apparently this was not worthy of making national news though. Shocking!

Las Vegas Review Journal 5/7/2007

A drunken driver who sped through a stop sign at Tenaya Way and Farm Road caused one of the worst traffic crashes in Las Vegas' history, police said, when he slammed into the side of a sport utility vehicle carrying a family, killing five people including an infant, a toddler and two young boys Saturday night.

"This is the worst of the worst," said Sgt. Tracy McDonald of the Metropolitan Police Department's fatal traffic unit. "This is no accident. ... It was entirely preventable."

Police said 19-year-old Ronald Jayne Jr., the driver of the vehicle that hit the family's SUV, suffered minor injuries and faces at least 20 criminal charges including five counts of driving under the influence involving a death and five counts of reckless driving involving a death or injury.

Jayne was under a suicide watch at the county jail Sunday night, police said.

Police said he killed five of the eight people who were in a 1998 Mercedes-Benz ML 320.

The 32-year-old woman who was driving and two boys between 8 and 11 years of age were pronounced dead at the scene of the crash. A girl who was about a year to 18 months old died on the way to University Medical Center, and a boy younger than 1 died Sunday morning from his injuries, police said.

The three survivors from the SUV -- 20-year-old Karla Dominguez, a woman who is about 35 and a girl who is about 8 -- were in very serious condition Sunday night, police said.

Police said they were uncertain who was sitting where in the Mercedes but said there would have been enough seat belts for all of them. Police said at least one of the youngest children was in a child-safety seat.

About 9:30 p.m., Jayne was eastbound on Farm Road in a 2004 GMC Sierra and went through the four-way stop at a high rate of speed, police said.

At the same time, the SUV, which was northbound on Tenaya, drove into the intersection. Jayne slammed into the left side of the Mercedes. The Mercedes' gasoline tank ruptured, and it burst into flames, police said.

Police said they think the victims died from the impact of the collision and not from the fire.

Passers-by pulled the victims from the burning wreckage and tried to resuscitate those who were not breathing. One motorist who was driving behind the Mercedes, 39-year-old William Rejincos, said he saw the SUV engulfed in flames and called 911.

A man who identified himself only as Arnold said he helped pull one of the victims out of the back seat of the burning vehicle. He later learned that the victim died. "I was devastated," he said.

Arnold and Rejincos drove up to the scene of the accident late Sunday afternoon and placed two Styrofoam crosses covered in flowers near the scene. The crosses were part of a small shrine of stuffed teddy bears and other stuffed animals that had been placed alongside the roadway a few hundred feet from the site of the collision.

Someone had placed a burned and partially melted bag of diapers and a piece of a vehicle at the shrine.

Las Vegas police Detective William Redfairn said Jayne was with other people at a residence before the accident. The detective would not say whether Jayne had been at a party.

He said Jayne's father arrived at the scene of the collision soon after it occurred, and police sent him to UMC, where his son was at the time.

Redfairn said Sunday night that he did not know what Jayne's blood-alcohol level had been.

The only crash with a higher death toll that authorities could recall Sunday night was the March 2000 case in which then-20-year-old Jessica Williams veered off Interstate 15 and mowed down teens who were picking up trash in the median.

Six people, ages 14 to 16, were killed.

"I've said the same thing over and over and over again. The message is very simple: buckle up, don't drink and drive and obey the traffic laws. If you can do that simple thing, you will stay alive, and the people of this community will stay alive," Redfairn said.

What may be even more sad is the fact that there is so much to this story that is not told, or that is twisted. I am completely against drunk driving & feel it is a shame that there were eye witnesses that saw open containers of alcohol falling from the vehicle that contained the 8 people (and yet it only seated 5) and one of the babies, the youngest in fact, was riding on the lap of the driver. Yes, there was a drunk driver involved, more possibly TWO, as the occupants Mercedes had just left a party to watch a boxing match & were on their way to another Cinco De Mayo party.

The teenage driver of the truck probably sat at the curb in shock of what was happening, besides the fact that he was drunk & obviously didnt have his full wits about him, and he received an injury to his leg & ankle in the accident & was taken to the hospital due to the severity before going to jail... do you really expect that he would run over to help? Perhaps if he were uninjured, sober & not in shock & disbelief.

I was one of the people who said he should burn in hell for what he caused, and then I did a little research & can now see a lot more of the story & can see how both parties were severely at fault.

Unfortunately, if the adults in the Mercedes were more responsible as well, this could have been prevented. If you want to know how, read on...

1. Eye witnesses stated that the Mercedes only slowed down, but did not come to a full stop at the 4-way. Therefore, they both ran the stop sign.

2. There were open alcohol containers inside and around the Mercedes. They were coming from one party & headed to another, in the middle of the night, with too many people, mainly children in the car... Doubtfully sober thinking.

3. A 1998 Mercedes ML350 seats 5. The optional 3rd row seating (to accomodate 7) was not introduced until 2000. Simple math shows that 8 does not go into 5, without the remainder sitting on each others laps, illegally. *and the baby was one of them, riding on the drivers lap.

If the above 3 items were not a factor, yes... it would completely be the fault of the other driver, but it is not.

Yes, I see what you are saying but I still contend that Ronald Jayne should fry for this. I am not saying that the people in the other car should be alleviated from responsibility if they were indeed drunk as well but I am focusing on Jayne and his behavior because it parallels that of Mark Nigon. (the drunk who hit me.) I don’t know if you have read my story on this blog but I actually called my wife for a ride because I was drunk. Nigon was drunk on the same night. He drove the wrong way down a one way street and hit us head on. When the police came to his car he was belligerent and refused to take a sobriety test. They had to arrest him and charge him with vehicular assault to take a felony blood draw one hour later which still came to .217.

We are way to lenient on drunk driving. We classify injuries due to drunk driving as accidents when they are clearly intentional. If someone “accidently” shot someone while drunk it would be treated as more severe than if they got in a car and killed them. I believe there to be no difference in the two scenarios. A car is a deadly weapon in the hands of drunk. Ronald Jayne should go away for five lifetimes. The family in the van has most likely been punished enough!